Month: September 2019

A Place to Belong

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This is a short story about a teen girl who feels she doesn’t belong and the place she feels she might.

She sat with her headphones in. A typical teen. Not if you looked closely. Her thoughtful expression was turned to the screen as simply a place to rest her eyes upon, her melodious Christian music, and her thoughts were far from typical. There were several unusual parts of her surroundings we must mention. She sat in one row of four van benches, surrounded by other teens and country music. Most of the teens sat unbuckled in the moving van while the driver controlled the music and texted.

 

This was unusual for her due to reasons we do not have time or space to expound upon. The girl was using the headphones to block out the noise of non-Christian music. She had never expected a mission trip to be the place where she was exposed to such. She had also supposed a group of Christians to be the ones following seatbelt laws. She didn’t fit in here. Once, she had supposed she must; for if not of the world, we ought to be of another as Christians, right? Her assumption was incorrect, where she was sitting at the least. She did not fit in there. They were on their phones consistently, laughed at things she didn’t, had no problem with breaking rules, and acted more immature than she had imagined. They didn’t seem to care what others thought of them, as a group they acted upon (in her opinion) base instincts, but the next moment they cared to the utmost. This pack of animals teased and tortured her while she continued to smile and socialize, judge and hold herself aloof. They seemed to regard her in the light of a no-nonsense “saint” at the end of the trip. She was neither, but they never knew her.

 

She sat with her headphones in as she typed on a laptop. Perhaps more similar to a typical teen. If you looked closely, you would see she was writing comments and interacting with other young Christian writers, the headphones dangling from her ears playing Narnia movie soundtracks. I belong here, I fit in. She thought and smiled.

The End

 

Canceled Flights with British Airways

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This article is a summary of the article “British Airways Cancels Almost All Flights Over Pilot Strike” by Amie Tsang for the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/business/british-airways-cancellations.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Pilot strikes caused British Airways to cancel the majority of flights on the 8th and 9th of September. The British Airline Pilots’ Association is vying for more pay, even after the airline offered raises that it said would increase a pilot’s salary to £200,000 a year, roughly $246,551 in the United States of America. The airport seems to have confused the cancelations, they called off flights on another day, mistakenly expecting a strike, and contacted customers. Then, realizing their mistake, there was an outbreak from angry ticketholders who had made other plans. The British Airline Pilots’ Association has voted for another strike if the pay problem isn’t resolved by the date set.

Freshman Year Journal ~ Week 3

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This will be a year to remember. I am realizing the extent of that now.

Monday was labor day. ~ Therefore, Reed and David were home and I didn’t do school.

Tuesday ~ I had a lot of extra work to finish Monday’s work as well. I didn’t quite finish but I made progress. As I did my two Math lessons, I could tell the work was progressively getting harder. I have mixed feelings about that. It was too easy and boring but I am afraid I will have a hard time grasping the concepts. Math seems to escape me while being easy, but writing is hard and seems half-laid in front of me. The way God gifts is astounding.

Wednesday ~ Tuesday and Wednesday I worked. I finished most of my school before I left Wednesday. My English assignment for this week was to write a one-page paper about culture conflicting with Christianity. I wrote “A Place to Belong” as a short story about a teen girl who doesn’t belong in one place and the place where she feels she belongs. She’s a writer like me. :) Since I had a friend coming over the next day I did two Math lessons.

Thursday ~ I cleaned my room because I did extra school the day before. Then I set it up for my friend to come over. I don’t have a bunk bed anymore so I borrowed a “mattress” from Adi’s room and put it on the floor. It was more of three pads stacked on each other, but we’ll say it was the equivalent of a mattress (Don’t worry, it was thick and comfortable).

Friday ~ I went to Speech club today (Oral communications credit). Afterward, Mom took Adi to a jump-park and I was with them. I didn’t do much school. I finished my English assignment and did some Spanish and French. The rest I did on Saturday.

Dorian who? Dorian Hurricane.

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This article is a summary of the article “Hurricane Dorian Updates: Storm Pounds the Bahamas and Threatens Florida” by The New York Times with the summary author’s personal opinion interjected. ;)

Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas and stayed at a practical standstill; causing major damages. Southern Florida is now predicted to be out of the cone but isn’t safe from danger yet, as a slight alteration of route could easily change that. The rest of Florida holds its breath as the Hurricane moved across the ocean at around one mile-per-hour. Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia are also predicted targets of the tearing winds and raging waters. Florida has managed precautions and damage-control after past hurricanes, therefore, their chances of devastation are predicted to be lower. The future remains to be seen by any other than God as we pray for our South-East coast.

Week 2

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Due to the arrival of our new exchange student, Daniel, from Korea, I didn’t have much time to do school the week after Week One. So I completed Week Two over two weeks (No, this is not a trend. I will be completing Week Three in hopefully one week. I refuse to make it three!!). This journal is looking back over the last two weeks (and the calendar).

First Week

I didn’t do much school. Daniel and his mom arrived and we did a lot of driving around, meeting with people, and problem-solving. Since I felt I could’ve done a better job on last week’s English assignment, I did that this week. I feel that I did an amazing job on it although I could still improve. My assignment was to interview my parents and write a page essay on the cost of following Christ for my family. It was a challenge, but I used the resource of a new book I got, “Thinking On the Page, A College Student’s Guide to Writing Essays” (I think that’s the name) and wrote something I believe my parents liked.

Second Week

I spent a lot of time on a lot of things and did a lot of catching up. My Bible memory verse for the next few weeks is Psalm 139 and I memorized through half of verse five. Spelling was crazy because I forgot about it until late in the week and we were out of “TUMS” tablet so I couldn’t do my science experiment. All three boys were home for Labor Day weekend. The craziness of life…

Homeschool Journal 9th, Week 1

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This week I worked at Terri-Lynn’s every single day (except Monday when it was closed) so I had to manage my time very carefully.

Monday: First day of school!! I did extra today because tomorrow my mom has arranged for me to meet a girl my age who is doing the same curriculum and is in the same grade as I am in school. I really liked the subjects Bible and Math (because it was really easy).

Tuesday: I sat at the Chiropractor’s office and did school before we went to meet the girl. We had fun and baked brownies after we talked for a while. I got some school done before work at least. ;)

Wednesday: Math is still soooooo easy. My writing assignment for this week is to do a page of creative writing to show the ‘otherness’ of two characters.

Thursday & Friday: My writing assignment for this week is to write a one-page creative story showing the “otherness” or different cultures/perspectives/worldviews of two different characters or groups of people. I’m writing a conversation/argument between two college roommates; one from NYC and the other from a community in small-town Maine. I should get to it!